Announcements

Thank you:

Dan for dealing with all of our "too hot", "too cold" requests and keeping the sidewalks safe!

Staff for great discussions on One Word with your team! I can't say enough about your professionalism and genuine care for one another! Those two attributes can not be taught and are keys to success!

Reminders:

Complete student teacher document by Monday, if interested in hosting. You can earn up to 90 hours/9CEUs with updated IPDP!

Subway forms are available in the workroom, please pay for each order separately or one at a time. This makes it so much easier for Subway to keep them straight.

Review your RtI plans and data for next week's meeting.

MAPS has just secured a restaurant night out at Granite City on Feb. 2. Mark your calendars for a dinner out with your family and raise money for Monclova!

Tentative dates for your calendar:

AW Spirit of Giving Spaghetti Fundraiser - February 19

Family Fun Night - March 11

CREATE! Conference - June 6

Words of Wisdom and Action..................

3 Strategies to Improve Student Writing Instantly by Ali Parrish first posted in A version of this post first appeared on Techie Teacher and Character Coach."But Miss Parrish, I can't think of anything to write!"

Haven't we all heard similar lines in our classrooms? We see hesitant writers sit with a pencil in their hands and a paper on their desks, almost as if they have been handicapped by the task we asked them to do.

How is it that some students have so much to say when talking out loud, but when a pencil is put into their hand they suddenly hesitate, struggle and have nothing to say? How can you help those hesitant writers eliminate the "handicap" or barrier that suddenly appears when asked to write?

The answer is to simply have them produce "writing" without technically "writing" at all. That's right, the way to get hesitant writers to produce as much "writing" as they do "talking" is to have them do exactly that -- talk.

This usually catches students off guard and takes them a minute to realize that it's a real option for them.

2. Audio Record It

Identify a way that your students can audio record themselves "speaking" their essay rather than "writing" it. This could be a tape recorder, digital audio recorder, student computer with a microphone or even an audio recording feature on your phone.

Hand that recording device to your student and say, "Step out in the hall and 'write' your essay using this."

See confusion, sheer awe, and then signs of relief come over the face of your student.

3. Audio Transcribe It

Identify an app or tool that will transcribe speaking into text. Some options for this include PaperPortNotes, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Dictation Pro, VoiceTranslator, or a text-to-speech tool that is built into many smartphones. Try one of these to your phone, tablet, or computer.

Before I had an iPad in my class, I usually opened a blank email on my iPhone, touched the text-to-speech button, handed my phone to my student and said, "Go ahead -- 'speak' your paper."

Next, see confusion, sheer awe and then signs of complete relief come over your student's face.

After speaking/typing it, the student can simply email him- or herself the text and work on the draft from there.